Estes Park hospital to partner with UCHealth

ESTES PARK — The Park Hospital District, which operates the nonprofit Estes Park Health medical center, has signed a letter of intent to join UCHealth in 2025.

The hospital’s directors have been in discussions with other health-care organizations about affiliation, driven by the increasing demands of economic and market forces on smaller hospitals. Wednesday’s announcement comes nearly a year and a half after voters in the hospital district approved a ballot measure in May 2023 that authorized the board to enter into a multi-year financial agreement if it decided to affiliate with a larger nonprofit health-care services organization.

“Residents of Estes Valley and Larimer County, and visitors to Rocky Mountain National Park, need high-quality health care close to home,” Estes Park Health CEO Vern Carda said in a prepared statement. “Estes Park Health has been honored to serve this area since 1975, and we recognize the hospital’s future is stronger by joining a Colorado-based health system.

“Today is a significant milestone in the history of health care in our community,” Carda said. “Next year, as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Estes Park Health, we are hopeful and excited to do so as part of UCHealth.”

According to the tentative agreement, UCHealth will invest more than $30 million into the hospital and the Estes Park community in the coming years, helping recruit new staff members and stabilizing Estes Park Health’s finances.

In the letter of intent, which was signed Oct. 3, UCHealth also committed to evaluating opportunities to expand access to virtual health programs and behavioral-health services.

Wendy Rigby and Dan Weaver, spokespersons for Estes Park Health and UCHealth respectively, confirmed to BizWest on Wednesday that the Park Hospital District would remain in place as part of the partnership and that revenue generated from the taxes would be used by UCHealth to support the Estes Park hospital and its clinics.

“It’s neither a merger nor a purchase,” Weaver said. “Estes Park Health would be joining our system through a long-term partnership agreement. We’ll have a long-term lease for the buildings there, and under the partnership we would run their clinical operation and employ their employees.”

Weaver said it would be up to individual physicians whether to join the UCHealth network.

“In some cases, we do employ physicians,” he said. “In other cases, doctors remain independent, and some doctors choose to be part of a large physicians’ group and we would contract with that group to have them work in our hospital.”

What happens now, Weaver said, “is almost like buying a house; over the next four to six weeks, you get the housing inspector in, then you get the legal documents in place before you officially sign at closing. 

“In this case, we have signed a letter of intent,” he said. “Over the next three to four months, we’ll do our due diligence, working through the details of a larger definitive agreement. Once it’s signed, that’ll be binding. Then there’ll be several months as we work out some of the details for employees and their benefits.”

If all goes as planned, Weaver said, he expected the partnership to be fully in place by next summer, but added that it might be a bit longer before UCHealth branding appears at the hospital and its clinics. “We probably won’t do that immediately,” he said.

More than half of Estes Park Health’s patients are covered by Medicare or Medicaid or are uninsured, according to a UCHealth news release, which added that “UCHealth, the state’s largest provider of Medicaid, is committed to continuing EPH’s care for patients who may have more difficulty accessing health care.”

Kevin Unger, president and CEO of UCHealth’s Northern Colorado region, said in a prepared statement that “UCHealth is honored that Estes Park Health asked to join our system of hospitals and clinics. The solid foundation they have built as their community’s hospital will be strengthened as we work toward similar missions of benefitting the communities we serve and improving the lives of our patients and employees. We look forward to welcoming Estes Park Health’s 320 staff members and providers while providing financial stability for the hospital and additional resources for the Estes Valley.”

Working with UCHealth is nothing new for Estes Park Health. For decades, the medical center and clinics have partnered with UCHealth, especially Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins and Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland to provide resources that benefit patients and the community.

As hospitals across the nation have been challenged in recent years by dramatically increasing expenses, rising uncompensated care and minimal increases in reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid, Estes Park Health has been challenged to maintain its services.

A year ago to the day, the Park Hospital District board voted unanimously to transfer some services to other companies while adding and optimizing other services. Among the major changes were contracting out home health, home care and outpatient hospice operation, as well as housekeeping duties. It also has approved transferring or reducing obstetrics services.

“We’re excited for the next chapter and believe this is the right direction for Estes Park Health,”

David Batey, chair of the Estes Park Health Board of Directors, said in the news release. “UCHealth truly invests in its patients, its team members and the communities it serves. UCHealth has stepped up and partnered with us to offer specialty care here in the Estes Valley, and they provided much-needed support during the COVID-19 pandemic and the wildfire in 2020.

“Health care in Colorado’s mountain communities is important,” Batey said, “and joining UCHealth will allow us to ensure the Estes Valley continues to have access to excellent care.”

Estes Park Health has net operating revenue of more than $60 million, 320 employees, 23 inpatient beds and 22 physicians and advanced-practice providers. It was founded in 1975 as Elizabeth Knutsson Memorial Hospital via a tax subsidy approved by Estes Park voters. Today, more than 19,000 patients — residents and visitors alike — see its health-care teams for outpatient and inpatient services.

UCHealth includes 34,000 employees, 14 acute-care hospitals, more than 200 clinic locations and hundreds of physicians across Colorado, southern Wyoming and western Nebraska.

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